Want to Do VS. Need to Do

Much of my day Thursday was taken up by making a little book as a store sample.  OK, it's cute, but it wasn't what I really wanted to be doing.

Last night I took some ME TIME.  Remember this quilt from last year?

Recently, I unearthed some of the left-overs.

Then I rounded up a few more "greens' that I thought might be nice.

Those strips at the top of the picture were left-over from the backing and facings of the original quilt.  It was a pretty fabric and would be introducing more pink tones, where the original had reds.

I cheated and got into some brand new bolts that have only been in the store a week or so.  They were JUST RIGHT!

Time for the fun to begin.  I sewed some new strip sets and added to others that I already had.  They went up on the design wall to play with.  I decided to use simple squares of a dark red/pink for accents.

At this stage, engineering comes into play.  In what order should it be sewn together?  Bits and pieces are added, extra strips here and there to make things fit.  I didn't want too many seams running all the way across.

  

Here's how things ended up.  I am pleased.  I will quilt it before I square it up, so I don't have to trim off more than necessary.  That was a nice bit of therapeutic sewing!  Now I can get back to the ONE MORE THING that I need to put together before I vend at a quilt show in two weeks.

Miscellaneous

One quilt show in August.
One quilt show in September.
Two quilt shows in October.  

Where does the time go???

Oh, and I also flew "home" for a week in September to visit family.

I am gearing up for the last quilt show of MY year, coming up in two weeks. After that, I should have more time for me.  Of course there are the holidays to think about .....

Even though not original, I thought I'd better show off some of what I've been sewing.  Two cute little patterns from "Bloomin' Minds".

I also put together a panel and pattern from Block Party Studios.

All of the above will look good as samples at shows and in the shop.  Today I got caught up with the not-so-fun job of adding hanging sleeves.

And let's not forget the beginning quilting classes I've been teaching on Tuesday afternoons.

One FUN activity just for me lately has been to take a wire wrapped jewelry class.  Here are the products of the first three class sessions.

So many things to do, so little time.

Sorry!

So sorry to be absent for so long.  One more quilt show this fall, then I can get back to doing a little more of what I want to be doing.  Here's where I was the past weekend:

I WILL have some new show and tell soon.  Promise!